DIGITAL LIFE
LESSON PLAN
My Media
Estimated time: 45 minutes
Essential Question: What are your personal media habits, and how much time
do you spend with different forms of media?
Learning Overview and Objectives
Overview: Students review their media habits and the array of media they use on a weekly basis, and reflect on
the role of digital media in their lives.
Students log the time they spend with different forms of digital media. From this log, students create a “My
Media Bar Graph,” a visual snapshot of their digital media lives that illustrates the amounts of time they spend
with different forms of media. Students then reflect on the role that digital media play in their lives.
objectives
Students will:
•Assess how much time they spend with media activities
•Record and compare the time they spend with different forms of digital media (cell
phones, Internet, etc.) and in different activities (texting, posting, and watching or
creating videos)
•Formulate a viewpoint on the role that digital media play in their lives
Materials and Preparation
Materials
•My Media Log Student Handout
•My Media Bar Graph Student Handout
•Digital Life Parent/Teacher Intro Video
•Digital Life Parent Tip Sheet
•Healthy Media Diet Parent Tip Sheet
•Got Media Smarts? Student Handout (if students completed it with their parents as homework from the
Digital Life 101 lesson)
Preparation
•Copy the My Media Log Student Handout for all students. Note: Students can fill out logs in class if
there is an extended period. Otherwise, students should fill in their media logs a week before coming to
class, estimating how much media they use in an average week or keeping track in real time.
•Copy the My Media Bar Graph Student Handout for all students
•Send parents the Digital Life Parent Tip Sheet
•Send parents the link to the Digital Life Parent/Teacher Intro Video
•Send parents the link to the Healthy Media Diet Tip Sheet
Key Vocabulary
•Habit: A regular behavior or practice
•Log: A written record of an occurrence over time
DIGITAL LITERACY AND CITIZENSHIP IN A CONNECTED CULTURE © 2010 www.commonsense.org
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DIGITAL LIFE
LESSON PLAN
My Media
teaching plans
Introduce
(If students completed the Got Media Smarts? Quiz Student Handout with their parents from the Digital
Life 101 lesson, briefly REVIEW answers with them and ask about the items that they and their parents agreed
and disagreed about most. You may review vocabulary from the Digital Life 101 lesson’s Digital Life Glossary
Student Handout as well.)
DIVIDE students into groups of four or five and GUIDE them on a mental journey. Ask students to close their
eyes and put their heads on their desks. Tell them you are going to take them on a mental journey through a
day in their media lives. For the exercise, tell them to think about their average day using digital media and to
respond silently to the questions you are asking. LEAD students through a typical day. Prompt them to imagine
what digital media they use, if any, when they first get out of bed. Do they check to see if they have text messages?
Do they watch TV or listen to MP3s in the morning? What do they do with digital media as they are going to
school? During the school day, do they use digital media for class or for entertainment? How so? Now ask them
to picture what they do after school. Do they use digital media for their homework, to socialize with others, or
to gather information? Do they multitask, using two or more forms of digital media at the same time?
Students SHARE what they discovered about their media habits based on the mental journeys.
Teach 1: Discuss Logs
REVIEW student media logs. Students should have completed their My Media Log Student Handout before
coming to class, or during the first part of class if the class is an extended period. In their groups of four or five,
ask students to refer to their own logs to discuss any or all of the following questions (one at time) with their
group. Have students report to the entire class on key questions.
ASK
• Was anyone surprised by how much media they use? How so?
• Was anyone surprised by how little media they use? How so?
• What are some of the common activities that people in your group do with digital media?
• What are some of the activities that only one person in your group does with digital media?
• Do you do more things with digital media in or out of school?
• Do you do more things with digital media alone or with other people?
• Do you consume (watch, listen, read) more digital media or create more?
REMIND students that each has different media habits and different media lives, and this is okay because every
student and every family is different. Take a show of hands about how many students have rules about how much
media they can participate in, and what are some of these rules.
DIGITAL LITERACY AND CITIZENSHIP IN A CONNECTED CULTURE © 2010 www.commonsense.org
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DIGITAL LIFE
LESSON PLAN
My Media
Teach 2: Make Media Bar Graphs
Still in small groups, students fill out their My Media Bar Graph Student Handout. Note: You might have older
students make pie charts. They can eyeball their “pie” slices, or make accurate pie charts at www.wikihow.com/
Make-a-Pie-Chart, or they can make an online pie chart at the National Center for Educational Statistics: http://
nces.ed.gov/nceskids/ graphing/Classic/bar_pie_data. asp?ChartType=pie
After students are done making their bar graphs, have them study the logs and bar graphs of all members in their
group and then discuss each other’s media habits.
ASK
• Who in the group appears to spend the most time with digital media overall?
• What forms of digital media do group members seem to use least?
• Are there aspects of your classmates’ media lives that you found particularly interesting?
Wrap Up and Assess
ASK
• In comparison to others in the class, would you characterize your media intake as low, high, or somewhere
in between?
• What were some of the most common activities that students do with digital media?
• Based on the logs and pie charts that you made, is there anything you would change aboutyour media lives?
You can use students’ responses about their logs and pie charts to assess their understanding of the lesson objectives.
Extension Activity
Students make a photo story of their digital lives. Have students take, draw, download, or cut out several pictures
that illustrate their lives with digital media. Ask each to select five of these pictures that represent their digital
life: their favorite digital media (Internet, cell phones, mobile media, etc.), how they use them, when they use
them, what they do with them, and why. Have students arrange these five photos in a PowerPoint presentation.
Below each slide they should write a sentence describing each picture. The sentence can explain what they are
doing, when, and why. Remind students to make sure pictures and sentences fit together to tell a story. Students
can share their PowerPoint presentations with the class, or post them on the class wikispace. Students or
classrooms without PowerPoint can download the open source version, which is part of the Open Office suite
(www.openoffice.org, free online).
DIGITAL LITERACY AND CITIZENSHIP IN A CONNECTED CULTURE © 2010 www.commonsense.org
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DIGITAL LIFE
LESSON PLAN
My Media
Alignment with Standards – National Educational Technology Standards for Students © 2007
(Source: International Society for Technology in Education, 2007)
1. Creativity and Innovation
Students demonstrate creative thinking, construct knowledge, and develop innovative products and processes
using technology. Students:
a. apply existing knowledge to generate new ideas, products or processes
b. create original works as a means of personal or group expression
2. Communication and Collaboration
Students use digital media and environments to communicate and work collaboratively, including at a
distance, to support individual learning and contribute to the learning of others. Students:
b. communicate information and ideas effectively to multiple audiences using a variety of media and formats
4. Critical Thinking, Problem Solving, and Decision Making
Students use critical-thinking skills to plan and conduct research, manage projects, solve problems, and make
informed decisions using appropriate digital tools and resources. Students:
a. identify and define authentic problems and significant questions for investigation
b. plan and manage activities to develop a solution or complete a project
c. collect and analyze data to identify solutions and/or make informed decisions
5. Digital Citizenship
Students understand the human, cultural, and societal issues related to technology and practice legal and
ethical behavior. Students:
a. advocate and practice safe, legal and responsible use of information and technology
b. exhibit a positive attitude towards using technology that supports collaboration, learning and productivity
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DIGITAL LITERACY AND CITIZENSHIP IN A CONNECTED CULTURE © 2010 www.commonsense.org
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